The Haunting

Being a fan of the haunted house genre, when I first saw the teaser trailer in the theater, I was extremely excited. That excitement didn't last long. This movie was a ridiculous remake of one of the classic haunted house films, and I'd never recommend this. Special effects are not scarry. What you don't see but know is there is what will make people remember the story and come back time and time again. Rent or buy the original instead, it's much creepier.

A vulgar, inept reworking of the classic novel by Shirley Jackson, and its very fine film adaptation from Robert Wise in 1963. The only thing this one has going for it are the lovely, imaginative sets. All else--the script, performances, and especially the direction by Jan DeBont are, to put it kindly, not good. All the subtlety and ambiguity of the original are tossed out the window in favor of a lot of noisy special effects that wouldn't scare a 5 year old. The only frightening thing about this nonsense is that it received as many positive reader comments on this board as it did! Rating: 4/10 for the sets and a certain amount of campy, so-bad-it's-fun entertainment value.

This is a very very bad movie. Where to start the cast just look like they're just wandering around overreacting to special effects. It's not scary. Catherine Zeta Jones should hand back her salary for this. Liam Neeson fairs little better and Owen Wilson is just Owen Wilson.. The main character whose name escapes me just basically runs about screaming the entire time. The story such as it is concerns an evil house with a shady and frankly quite tedious past. Save yourself the pain of this and watch The Shining again.

This is not only Lili Taylor's worst film but it is also one of the worst films ever made. What were these intelligent actors like Taylor and Owen Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones thinking when they accepted this crap? Were they really getting that much money to do this? How sad. It's not even good in a "so-bad-it's-funny" sorta way. When Taylor says towards the end, "it's all about the family" I thought I was going to vomit. This isn't worth commenting on any further -- if you still want to watch it after reading all the negative comments written, be my guest. Absolute garbage.

The 1999 remake of The Haunting is one of the finest films i've ever seen. Critics have been slamming this film left and right,and it's taught me what I suspected all along. Critics ' words should be taken with a grain of salt. The critics seem to not understand this movie isnt supposed to be scare you out of your seat ,it's all psychological terror. I think the movie also gets unfair treatment because it's a remake of an older film. Before listening to what the papers say about this movie,just remember that Star Wars was called an unoriginal,horribly bad movie.

***WARNING: Contains spoilers!*** I really don't understand the people that liked this movie. It's basically about four messed up people that wander through a house and end up being chased by special effects. Then two die, the sun rises, they walk out of the house and the story ends. What is up with that? Are we supposed to be scared by this? Although the house itself was neat, there was not much else worth repeating. Recent "horror" movies this past year have left me disappointed. Maybe someday soon someone can make a horror movie that's actually scary.

Well, I watched this movie for over 2 times. I thought it was all right, though I haven't read the book or watched the older version of this. I read other people's comments, and most of them rated for this movie for only two or even one star. I think this movie was well performed, and it really gave me chills every second. The children's statue and the special effects were pretty unique. We can also observe how every character shown their different personalities, and they try to fight against the evil spirit or get defeated by it. Maybe I should read the book and compare it carefully once again? I rate this movie 7 out of 10.

Though I have never been scared at the movies I still enjoy the suspense and mystery of a well done "Scary Movie". The Haunting fits that bill very well. The acting is good, though I would say that Lili Taylor's acting makes the movie. Maybe her best acting yet. But all the actors did a good job and I'm pleased to see such main stream leading actors playing equal roles. The set is very well conceived and rich in detail which always helps the depth of a movie. Having not seen the original movie, I see this movie as a stand alone story worth every minute spent watching it.